Questions About My Breastfed Baby

My daughter could clear a room when she was a baby. And yes as they get older their BM will space out.

it is normal for breastfed babies to poop after every feeding when they are very young.. but then it goes to once a day or once every other day.. or even longer.. breast fed babies do not get constipated ever-- but they may not poop very often cause the milk is so easy to digest they dont have a lot of waste ...

some babies.. and some adults are more gassy than others... foods that cause gas in you.. broccoli... may cause gas in teh baby..

dont worry but ask your dr at thenext visit..

Yeah right. ;) Breastfed babies certainly can have stinky bms. Go to any La Leche meeting and you'll find someone who either has or had stinky poo. Sometimes it's what the mommy ate but sometimes you just have a stinky baby and it's hard to know the difference. It's just the nature of poo I think. Any poo, bf'd or not, that stays in the bowel longer (ie a day) is going to smell a bit more. The longer it stays in, the longer it has time to, ahem, freshen. Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about this if she's otherwise ok. BTW, congrats on making it this far. I totally understand how hard it can be.

Oh, and check out kellymom, it's a great resource. Here's an article I found you might find interesting., http://www.kellymom.com/babyconcerns/gassybaby.html

I don't know about the gas, but as long as it doesn't bother her I wouldn't worry about fewer BMs. When I was nursing my twins, my daughter was once a day like clockwork. My son was like clockwork, too -- he was just once a week. It freaked me out at first, but he was happy, not in pain, BM was still relatively soft when it did come, and I finally started reading/hearing that this was indeed possible with breastfeeding. Good luck and congratulations on your new baby!

My baby boy passed gas quite often for the first several months. This became less noticable as his digestive system matured. The doctor told me that babies stop getting gas around 4 months, but I noticed it was more like 5 1/2 months for my little boy. He still passes gas, but not as frequently. And yes, it sometimes has an odor to it...I guess that surprised me as well.

That being said, I did monitor my diet and steered away from items that seemed to cause him the most gas (like peppers and brussel sprouts), but only if he displayed painful gas and not just toots.

Smelly bowels is a sign of a toxic liver. If she was vaccinated, that can be one cause, as the liver works desperately to filter out the chemical poisons and heavy metals, viruses and other pathogens. Also toxins in your diet. Chemical sweetners, inorganic or highly processed foods. Magnesium deficiency is the number one cause of slow and sluggish bowels. You may want to add that to your diet.

Bowel movements in breastfed babies can be as far apart as 7-10 days and still be ok. Giving some apple juice in a bottle once in a while if you think she is struggling is ok and shouldn't interfere with the breastfeeding as long as you are nursing on demand and not trying to stick to a schedule. The every two to four hour rule is what can ruin your chances at continuing breastfeeding as milk production is a supply and demand operation. If your baby isn't nursing whenever it wants to then your production can fall off. Stick with it and your thrid baby will be your healthiest and happiest of the three!

Congratulations on the breastfeeding! Way to go!!! Both my kids had horrible gas and smell on and off with my breastfeeding. As others said, so long as not hard poops, should be fine.

All I found was changing my diet and drinking OVER a gallon of water a day really helped with gas and BM for them -- eliminating acidic foods, like tomatoe sauce, no garlics, little spice, "eating like I was 80" until around 12-16 weeks.

Sounds like a lot of water, but you yourself need almost a gallon, then include breastmilk production, and your milk might be "concentrated", which might account for gas and BM smells... I tried to keep cups everywhere, and drank one before and after or during each nursing and almost did 2 gallons a day. REALLY helped with milk production and made me feel great to make good food for my baby:)

Gas drops like Mylecan didn't work, but Little brand makes a great homeopathic one and works.

Good luck and go-go Mama!

The gas is probably due to something in your diet. Simply cutting back on dairy won't help, it has to be completely eliminated. Other culprits can be cruciferous vegetables (brocolli, cauliflower, cabbage), gluten, eggs, and soy. They could be responsible for the gas. Also, have you given her any supplements? They can cause intestinal upset too. As for the frequency, that's normal for BF babies. Formula babies have to have BMs so often because they're not digesting the formula. BF babies digest much more of the breastmilk, so there is less waste to eliminate. The smell is naturally going to be worse the longer between BMs she goes, but as long as it's not hard, compact, and she isn't straining, then she's not constipated. Don't worry! Keep a food log to try and connect it with something that you're eating to see if eliminating that food helps. For my son (who's been BF for 2 years!) it was eggs up until he was about 1 year old that gave him terrible, smelly gas. Good Luck!

For breastfed babies it can be normal to have bm's every diaper change, but it is also normal for some breastfed babies to only have a bm once a week. Babies are just different. The key would be to check the consitancy of the bm and watching the baby for signs of constipation. If she is only going every few days but it's the normal soft bm - then she's fine. But if it is on the hard side and you notice any discomfort or straining on her part, then she probably needs some help to get things going again. So as far as the length of time between - just watch her and the bm's. As far as the gas - that all depends on what you eat. And many different things can cause it. Again, babies are different and something that bothers one doesn't bother another. I would start keeping a log of everything you eat and drink. Just write it down in a notebook every day and then at the end of the day also write what you noticed about how bad her gas was. Maybe rate it from 1-10. After a week of doing this you will probably start to notice a pattern of something you eat that causes her gas to be worse. It may not be as easy as just looking at a particular food though - if the pattern isn't obvious, think about what things are in the foods - higher fat content or high fiber, etc. Also, keep in mind that as she grows and develops her body will change and so she will go through different stages with gassiness and bm's.

I don't think I would be that concerned about the gas/smell unless she seems very unhappy. The BM's are completely normal. Digestion seems to change overnight and they become more efficient at digesting BM.

It's normal for a BF baby to go as little as every 7 days. Yes, that's once a week. Both of my kids had bm's every 5-7 days from 2-6mo (when they started eating solids). However, it's not normal for her gas to smell horrible. I would try a full out breast feeding elimination diet. Simply cutting back on dairy might not be enough. Dairy, wheat, soy and night shades are the most common allergens. Good luck!

My son stopped pooping multiple times a day at about 7 weeks. He had been doing 2-4 times a day then just didn't go for 4 days. I checked with my doctor and she said it was normal plus my sister's kid did the same thing, so I just waited and sure enough, on day 5 he had a massive blowout. After that he went every 4 days like clockwork. We used to joke to that we couldn't leave the house on "poop days" b/c we didnt want to be out when the blowout happened. So the schedule is totally normal. And there were times when mine was so smelly I couldn't believe it. Babies CAN smell like truck drivers that have eaten nothing but truck stop food, for no apparent reason. If your daughter doesn't seem to be in pain or anything, I wouldn't worry about it.

And way to go on the breastfeeding! It will be tough sometimes. I called a lactation consultant twice in the first year to ask questions because things just got weird or diffiicult. Don't hesistate to ask questions and get help. You will be glad you did.